Canada’s Sharpe wins gold to end World Cup season

Canada’s Cassie Sharpe ended the World Cup halfpipe skiing season with a gold medal Tuesday, giving her momentum heading into next week’s world championships. Skiing last on the final run, Calgary’s Sharpe knew she had won gold before she hit the pipe. Instead of taking it easy, Sharpe turned up the difficulty for her final run, landing a switched cork 720 — a jump where she takes off backwards and does two full rotations on an axis that goes upsidedown through the middle. Tuesday’s win is the second in Sharpe’s World Cup career. Her other victory also came at Tignes in 2015.